Chicken Little and the Government Shutdown

September 26, 2013

Since the fight over Obamacare defunding began, the news media and politicians have focused on the political damage the GOP took in 1995. For all the claims of how awful a temporary shutdown would be, it’s interesting that news media has ignored the more than dozen shutdowns that took place in the 70s and 80s, and how life was just fine.

In April 2011, it appeared that Congress might shut down the government. NBC’s Brian Williams reported at the time that such a shutdown would be the 18th one since 1976. Here is the full list:

And therein lies the secret of the big, bad government shutdown: America has survived just fine. The shutdowns didn’t cause strife across our great nation. Thunder didn’t come down from the sky, and volcanoes didn’t erupt.

With this reality, now seems like a great time to remind our Senators that a government “shutdown” isn’t so bad. The GOP could do better by standing FOR something, rather than continuing its fear-based capitulations to the President.

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Since the fight over Obamacare defunding began, the news media and politicians have focused on the political damage the GOP took in 1995. For all the claims of how awful a temporary shutdown would be, it’s interesting that news media has ignored the more than dozen shutdowns that took place in the 70s and 80s, and how life was just fine.
In April 2011, it appeared that Congress might shut down the government. NBC’s Brian Williams reported at the time that such a shutdown would be the 18th read more >